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Saturday, 31 March 2012

Business Biscotti's "Digital Day" 29th March 2012 was hosted by Graham and Sue Reeves at the Grovefield House Hotel , Burnham.

The weather was very kind to all who attended this brilliant networking event of entrepreneurs from the Berkshire and Bucks area.

Business Biscotti know how to put on an engaging business networking event which is not only commercially relevant, but provides insightful help to members being both a profitable and a FUN EXPERIENCE!

Refreshments for the day were provided by the Grovefield House hotel .

The buffet lunch was delicious - especially the poached salmon and new spuds ( potatoes) which we were allowed to take out onto the patio and enjoy 'al fresco' soaking up some spring sunshine and taking pleasure from the spring flowers and early tree blossom in the garden.

'Doing lunch' is a traditional way to network and the facilities of the Grovefield House make a convivial space for business discussions.

Brilliant March sunshine illuminates the sponsors' banners for Business Biscotti's Digital Day March 2012

Sponsors for the day included Symantec, Barclays, BMG, the Head Partnership. CAM foundation 1and 1, TACK International and venue provider Grovefield House Hotel.

The afternoon provided workshops on " Cloud Security - what does that mean to your business?", "Must Know Legal Issues for E-commerce entrepreneurs", Social Media in the Sales Process, " Social Media- making the pieces fit", " Limit your losses from cardholder not present transactions", " Social Media + 101 Hot tips" and "The power of video in Promoting your business" "Doing Business on the move - The Benefits of mobile Technology in Business"

Additionally there was Catherine's photographic studio on hand to help biscottiers update their photos for digital profiles for web sites, biographies and social media.

Mrs Biscotti (aka Sue Reeves) of Business Biscotti opens Business Biscotti's Digital Day

Sue is the Marketing Director of Business Biscotti and gave us a ' heads up' on the day and brief overview of Business biscotti and explained the reason for the Digital day arose from the flood of requests from the membership- known as 'biscottiers'. Sue then introduced the Mayor.

Amanda Gee set the scene for the story of the Digital Journey that BMG have undertaken. In such a traditional business as local newspapers she talked us through a time line for the Slough Observer (founded in 1882) through the changes oft he 20th century and into our time.

From the first local 'newspaper' the Oxford Gazette in 1665 the newspaper industry had not changed that much for three hundred years. Amanda then explained how technology changes from Hot Metal presses to the Digital revolution had transformed the business..

In 1997 The Slough Observer introduced it's first on line product "This is Slough.com" This pioneering entry into digital
predated Ebay ,Google , You Tube, facebook and most high street on line retailers.

She mentioned that there was much debate at the time about whether digital might might take business from the then core business of print.

Even up to 2006 BMG were not monetising their on-line products. then matter changed. Eddie Embleton continued with the BMG digital story.

Eddie set about redevelop the BMG site. From weekly updates the on line version moved to a daily news provider. The former method of returning to the office or phoning in reports moved to creating content that could be uploaded from anywhere no longer restricted to the
news desk.

This moved the circulation figures from under 30,000 for Slough ,Reading and Bracknell a month to 105,000.

The Key was demonstrate not only how to do drive on-line the revenue but how it would do it better.

Jobsite partnered with them – Job Seekers best experience –
recruiters local audience in print and on line and on a huge website and job
boards – reaching over 6 million job seekers BMG have 100,000 CVs

To illustrate brand extensions Eddie mentioned a new on line product Family Notices – where friends and families can leave messages. Such has been the growth of new products on-line for BMG that the group are now displaying ½ million pages per month.

Digital business for the paper
year on year currently 40% with More digital products than paper.

The day had added sparkle with entertainment in the exhibition space and at the chill down drinks outside in the warm evening sunshine on the patio at the back of the hotel. Magician Ian Gray and Silhouette Artist Charles Burns worked the crowd.﻿

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

A voice that conveys competence, strength and trust is a useful asset for any sales professional.

In the 2012 Oscar winning film with Meryl Streep
'The Iron Lady' ,it covered a part of the former PM’s story where she took
lessons in voice control in order to lower her speaking pitch to establish more gravitas.

Unlike the film, in real life Margaret Thatcher received voice coaching from a woman not a man. Kate Fleming coached actors like Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen. She also worked on Mrs Thatcher's voice over a period of four years 1972-1975 before Mrs Thacher became PM.

Poster of 'The Iron Lady' Film

There are quite a few parallels of leadership -especially political leadership- to selling.

Those who put themselves up for election do one of the most
courageous closes in selling. Essentially
asking "Vote for me" is pretty much the same as asking for the order.

Policies and manifestos are the equivalent of their
Differentiated Value proposition but how they deliver their messages is
important as well.

People buy people and similarly voters buy a voice it appears.

A study into voice pitch by Klofstad, Anderson and Peters from Miami and Duke
universities has been recently published . It gives some more robust scientific
data about the persuasive power of a lowervoice
pitch. The conclusion of the paper reads

“ …our findings challenge
existing theories of human behaviour, which assert that attitudes, such as
partisanship and ideology are the primary force behind vote choice. Thus, while
social participation and political decision-making are viewed as higher level
cognitive functions—the kind of thinking that sets us aside from other
animals—our results clearly demonstrate that these behaviours cannot be
understood in isolation from biological influences.”

Pitch influences perception of leaders C. A. Klofstad et al.

The study involved testing the judgement of listeners to
altered pitched version of

‘I urge you to vote for me this November’

by female and male
speakers.

People appear to prefer lower voices when voting

The study appears to demonstrate that humans prefer leaders with lower-pitched
voices, whether they are male or female. Consequently, male and female political candidates
with lower pitched voices may be more likely to win elected offices. ( The political equivalent of winning the account in selling)

As a consequence, the researchers also observe that notwithstanding countries
that use gender quotas , women are vastly under-represented in leadership
positions across the globe.

" While gender discrimination is an obvious cause of
the under-representation of women as leaders, our results suggest that biological
differences between the sexes, and the study's responses to those differences, could potentially
be an additional factor to consider." ( I am not sure what gender discrimination studies have been undertaken in the Sales / buying arena - but certain trade sectors seem under represented e.g. Engineering)

Left: Election experiment results. Proportion of votes cast for
the lower-pitched version of male and female voices.

A value of 0.50
represents no discernible preference for either higher- or lower-pitched voices.

Because women, on
average, have higher pitched voices than men, and because higher-pitched female
voices are judged to be weaker, less competent and less trustworthy ( from this study), the
characteristics of this vocal signal could help explain why women are less
likely to hold leadership roles than men.

At the very least, voice pitch is a
physical characteristic that does not counterbalance social norms that foster
gender inequality.

A test of this hypothesis the researchers postulate would be to assess which sex fares
better in a forced-choice election experiment when subjects are asked to choose
between male and female voices with the same, and different, voice pitches.

Voters ( like Buyers? ) vote on impressions

The researchers results add to the growing evidence that vote
choices can be made based on ‘thin’ impressionistic judgements . They
also add evidence to the literature showing that human behaviour is influenced
by voice qualities in domains other than physical conflict and mating. ( which I guess includes selling, We certainly feel in selling the truth' that you don't get a chance to make a first impression)

As more and more
selling is communicated through pitches via the microphone of telephone,
mobiles and Web Pitches this research area has pertinence for our profession of
selling.

Of course a low voice pitch alone will not always be the whole story in successfully capturing votes.

Remember comedian Joe Pasqualie was voted King of the Jungle 6th December 2004? I guess the bush trucker trials etc. put his strength, competence and trustworthiness to the test for the watching public's vote in ITV's " I'm a celebrity -Get me out of here"

Monday, 26 March 2012

Back at Scarman House today, Warwick Conferences in Coventry to run a TACK PRO-PAYBACK Selling 3 day programme with my colleague Philip Stanley. Wonderful spread of businesses represented. Most of the delegates are a little nervous about introductions and standing up and introducing themselves so Phillip and I get them to interview each other and let the interviewer describe the colleague they interviewed.

Stand Up and be counted:

As they their career as salespeople progresses they know that they will often be expected to introduce ourselves to prospects, at networking events, at presentations, pitches and even further training courses.

Because we reckon we know how to speak and have had an education we often think we are ' bright ' enough and the words will come to mind. to blag an introduction.

Well for many of us the right words don't come that easily

If you have a shy personality this initial introduction can feel like a torture. Indeed the expression ' has the cat got your tongue?' derives from the cat o nine tails flog that the Royal Navy used to discipline sailors. Apparently the sailors had to to even make his own cat o nine tails from rope. It was thrown away after punishment.)

Hugh Alford - TACK International

Well we can avoid the cat getting our tongue by PREPARING.There is a phrase in English often used to by clients to communicate to us a plea for brevity it goes

" In a nutshell....."

Enclosing key communication in a nutshell has a long history.(The Dalriadic King of Scots used to issue new laws in a Nutshell from Kilmartin Priory, Argyll in 465 BC. The shell protected the delicate parchment inside.)The client wants to crack our shell to obtain the nut. Our shell case must be sufficiently attractive and inviting. Maybe we have a wonderful selection of Bowl overflowing with Solution Nuts to offer our client with easy to open pistachios through easy crackable walnuts , almonds and hazelnuts through to the more challenging Brazil nuts ( OK Pistachios and Brazil are not strictly nuts in the biological sense but you get the point) .

Our nutshell sell has a lot to do with an inviting shell case.

1. Ensure you nut casing is not made of unnecessary negatives

In his super book " Drop the Pink Elephant" by Bill MCFarlane the author points out how we often we include in our conversation unnecessary negatives in our conversatione.g. "I'm not really in Sales ...." I don't really sell......" I am not really trying to sell you anything....so often means of course the above mean the opposite - They mean actually I AM IN SELLING"2. Don't over hype your nutshell casingIf we are not in denial the case of our nut shell can be overhyped. The new series of the Apprentice clocked in 6 million viewers last Wednesday night to see some their hyped introductions . Of course this showed is contrived TV entertainment but the sixteen candidates reveal their business philosophies and personal shell cases to be captured on the trailers to the programme."I am a master puppeteer - I pull all the strings"

"I am the blonde Assasin..".

"I am like a shark right at the top of the food chain."Are such statements indicators of who might win the £250,000 Lord sugar wants to invest watch this space? They sound more like old school elevator pitches.

Notice how many of the participants in the new series of the Apprentice feel are asked to introduce themselves to Lord Sugar.

First impressions do count. You also that you will be expected to do these short introduction prospects, at networking events, at presentations, pitches and even training courses so why not prepare your your nutshell sell.

Here is a process guide that you will find helpful:-

For example when prospecting Prepare your thought around these 8 points to give your nutshell focus.

1 Focus your nutshell sell around the person within the prospect who is most likely
to suffer from the problem you can solve, and who is likely to initiate the
buying decision process. You can describe the role by title (“Finance
Director”) or function (“Head of Finance”)

2 Your Ideal Prospect is the sort of organisation you would
like to do business with. Your focus may need to reflect demographic, structural,
behavioural or environmental considerations. Keep it simple

3 Focus on the most valuable problem that your solution
can solve for them. This could be a current pain point, an as-yet unmet goal,
or an opportunity that they are trying to exploit - what keeps them awake at night

4 Use the product or service
name of your solution

5 What category of solution does your offering fit into? You
must use a category the prospect would recognise

6 What is the most important business benefit they will
derive from using your solution - the primary motivation for buying?

7 What would your prospect consider to be the most likely
alternative approach (this could be a competitor, or it might just as likely be
an in house solution, etc.) to solving the problem?

8 Identify the one thing - preferably something that is
highly relevant to the prospect, that you do particularly well, and which would
be hard for anyone else to copy or claim - that sets you apart from all the
other options available to the prospect

A template to crack your nutshell sell ( using the 8 points about insert the appropriate words)

In a nutshell ….

1."We work with...

2.In...

3.Who are trying to...

4.Our...

5.Is a....

6.That enables
them to...

7.Unlike...

8.Which sets us apart ..."

Shakespeare’s Hamlet declares, "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space."

The Dalriadic King of Scots used to issue new laws in a Nutshell from Kilmartin Priory, Argyll in 465 BC. The shell protected the delicate parchment inside.

Sunday, 25 March 2012

British Summer time in UK is upon us. Our clocks went forward on Sunday 24th.Since the 1980s, all parts of western and central Europe have co-ordinated the date and the time of their clock changes.

Once again the issue about adopting SDST (Single Double Summer Time) is raised in the media.

Views from Businesses in London were researched some while back by GLA Economics who published in October 2010.

Do you
believe that such a change would be beneficial to your business?

Yes36%

No8%

Sundial designed by David Harber on Putney High Street London
March 24th 2011 No hours hand to put forward the Gnomon is "correct" for BST from Today

It
would make no difference 51%

Don’t
know 5%

Total100%

For companies dealing with clients abroad, moving in line
with other European countries has obvious benefits.

The report done by the
Greater London Authority said changing the clocks would provide 40% more
business time overlap with the continent for businesses in the City and enable
people to attend morning meetings in Europe without staying overnight. This
also applies to many businesses outside London as well.

It
would also provide more working time in the morning for trading with Asian
markets

But pushing the UK an hour eastwards would narrow the
opportunity to speak to companies in the US, especially the West Coast, which
would be nine or 10 hours behind the UK.

Much
of Scotland's trade is also with Europe and is worth £15bn to the Scottish
economy annually.. The
time difference reduces efficiency for companies.

These Summer time
changes on standard dates throughout the EU mean Britain and Ireland constantly
remain an hour behind most of Central Europe

Whether it is exports or imports that are the focus, or
whether it is goods trade or services, the UK’s main trading partner is Europe
and not the US or Japan or China. Multinational companies commonly have a
European hub, an Asian hub and a US hub. Typically the European Head Office is
responsible for the European regional offices and not for Asian or US offices.
If the European Head Office is in London, it is therefore much more important
for its working day to overlap with the rest of Europe than with Asia or North
America.

If the UK moved to SDST (Single Double Summer Time) then the overlap with Asia in the
morning would increase while that with North America in the afternoon would
diminish (the opening of the New York stock exchange would move to 3pm London
time).

This also affects business travel. UK businessmen make 8-9
times more business trips to Europe than to North America.24 A move to SDST would help
business travel and communications with European partners, customers and
suppliers and could therefore boost trade.

----------------------------------

On a lighter note-Springtime is well underway in London

Londoners have been enjoying sunny weather and all the sundials have been working. Some photos of Holland Park in central London

"Annunciation" 2000 sculpture in Holland Park
Monday 25th is Lady Day the feast of the Annunciation

Sometimes
Delegates tell me they can find it hard to just talk with clients as a Trusted adviser or on a
financial/general business level rather than the comfort zone of their technical solutions of their products and services.

The period of a few days after the Budget give us opportunities to
learn more about client's business in general by asking what their views, opinions,
attitudes, feelings, needs , wants and disappointments the announcements of the
budget. and give our clients a really good listening to!

Here are four areas from which you could draw out one or two questions to get talking at a business level with Clients on Budget 2012.

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About Me

I have been a training consultant for 30 years.
I also research Buyers Views of Sales people for an ongoing research study I have done for the last twelve years
The majority of photographs, videos and audios in this blog are taken on my new Fujifilm Fine pix T from May 2012 The Pencil Sketches are mine also